


The Biggest Dork in the World

by quantumoddity



Series: Everything's Okay AU [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Crush, Cute, Everything's Okay AU, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Protective Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 16:50:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9500816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumoddity/pseuds/quantumoddity
Summary: “Well then, seems like you have your answer, buddy,” he shrugged, flopping back on the couch, “You have an Official Crush. Congrats.”Ever since Maria Reynolds escaped her abusive husband and moved in with the Hamilton's, Jamie Hamilton and Susan Lewis have been best friends. But now things might be changing.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MinkyForShort](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinkyForShort/gifts).



> This follows on from my other work, The Means to Go On, so you might want to read that first to get the gist?

“So, do you think she’s…smart?” AJ asked, leaning over the edge of the sofa, watching his little brother bemusedly.

Jamie squirmed in response, “Well…yeah? Of course I do, I’m in half of Susie’s classes, I know she’s smart.”

AJ held up one finger, as if keeping count, “And do you think she’s kind?”

Jamie gaped, had he even met Susan Lewis? “Of course she’s kind, she’s the kindest person I’ve ever met! She climbed all the way up that tree yesterday just to get that baby bird back in its nest.”

“And do you think she’s funny?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Do you think she’s interesting? Like, do you have good conversations with her?”

“All the time?”

AJ smirked and held up yet another finger, his whole hand now splayed out, “And do you think she’s…pretty?”

If Jamie wasn’t already blushing, he did now, fiercely and right down to the roots of his dark wavy hair, “AJ!”

His brother spread his hands, placating, “It’s a fair question, Jamesy. Do you or do you not find our Susie physically attractive?”

Jamie groaned and buried his face in one of the many crocheted cushions that lay in heaps across the Hamilton’s living room.

He was starting to think that coming to AJ for advice had been a bad idea.

He wanted his answer to be no, he really did, it would make everything so much simpler. But when he thought about Susie, the girl he’d been sharing a house with since he was five, since she and her mother Maria had come to live with them after escaping her abusive husband, there was a funny feeling in Jamie’s chest that hadn’t been there until recently. When he thought of the way her dark hair got all rumpled in the mornings and stuck out around her face in a cloud of curls. They way her bright eyes caught the light and held it. The way her smile stretched all the way across her face when she was really happy and it made her little snub nose wrinkle up. The way she smelled of home and safety and a little like apples whenever she leaned on him as they watched TV or read together, just like always.

“Jamie?” AJ prompted, still waiting for an answer, wriggling all five of his long fingers in his brother’s face.

“Yes, okay?” Jamie blurted in a breathless rush, “She’s really pretty. She’s one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen in my life. Okay?”

AJ nodded, satisfied. He’d been expecting that answer, to be perfectly honest; Jamie’s crush on Susie (and Susie’s on Jamie, although there was no way AJ was making this so easy for his brother) had been obvious for a good few weeks.

“Well then, seems like you have your answer, buddy,” he shrugged, flopping back on the couch, “You have an Official Crush. Congrats.”

Jamie’s deep brown eyes grew wide in what looked like horror; he jerked the collar of his turtleneck sweater, the one he’d knitted himself, all the way up over his blushing face.

He’d been afraid of that.

“Hey, hey, hey,” AJ softened a little, in spite of himself, throwing a cushion at Jamie to break him out of his funk, “It’s hardly a death sentence. All you have to do is ask her out.”

Jamie only groaned louder, curling up like a hedgehog, “Ask her out? Are you crazy?”

AJ snorted, “Well, I am a Hamilton. A lot of people say that’s the same thing. But so are you?”

Jamie crumpled, “I can’t ask her out!”

“Why not?” AJ wrinkled his nose, though he felt like he already knew the answer.

“Because she’ll…she’ll laugh? Or she’ll be disgusted or she’ll be angry or she’ll just say no or…or…”

Another cushion projectile silenced Jamie’s frantic babbling.

“You don’t know that until you ask her, stupid,” AJ pointed out, arching an eyebrow.

Jamie glared back, “I do. Because, for the reasons you’ve already dragged out of me, Susan is perfect. Tons of guys have already asked her out at school and she knocked them all back, and they were all way better than me! So why the hell would she say yes to me?”

AJ shook his head, “Because you are also great, brother, way more than those clowns. I feel like you’re not being fair to yourself…surprising no one.”

Jamie flushed at the unusual compliment from AJ but it didn’t make him unfurl. Or convince him that asking out Susan wasn’t a terrible idea that would end in tears, humiliation and probably death.

AJ decided that drastic action was called more. He swung himself onto his feet and lazily approached his brother, moving like a giant lanky cat, as per. He ruffled his brother’s hair.

“Go ask her out, buddy…or I’ll do it for you. I’ll make you sound good!”

That did it, Jamie shot up with a loud yelp, “No! No, no, no, absolutely not!”

AJ laughed, giving Jamie finger guns as he left the living room, he’d know that would work.

“Let me know how it goes!”

That night, Angie and AJ ran into each other in the bathroom; Angie cleaning her teeth as AJ went hunting for a hairbrush to try and tame his lion’s mane of hair. They gave each other a lazy high five as they passed, closing the bathroom door to the clamour and racket of a house full of Hamilton’s getting ready for bed.

“Hey, hold up,” Angie popped one of her ear buds free and spat a mouthful of minty foam into the sink, “Did Jamie talk to you today?”

AJ smirked, “Yeah. Did Susie talk to you?”

Angie giggled and nodded, “God, those two…”

The two of them laughed helplessly for a while at the absurdity of teenage hormones.

“So what advice did you give, oh worldly wise sister?” AJ elbowed her playfully.

“Told her to get a grip and ask him out,” Angie shrugged, “I’m guessing you told Jamie something similar?”

AJ nodded, “Sure did. This is going to be interesting.”

Angie rolled her eyes, “I’m just glad we got this sorted nice and early. I cannot take another Pip and Theo situation, living in that fog of sexual tension again? No thanks.”

AJ cackled, giving her a theatrical shudder, “Mercy me, no. Can’t survive that twice.”

They got another high five as they parted ways. They were very proud of themselves.

Jamie decided to just go and find Susie before he lost the nerve entirely. Fortunately, given that they shared a room (being the closest in age), tracking her down was pretty easy.

Unfortunately, Susie had had a similar idea about finding him before she lost the nerve. Which resulted in something of a collision at their bedroom door, the two of them running right into each other.

“Hey!” Jamie yelped, managing to sort of mask his squeak of surprise, “Um, can we talk? Like now?”

Susie blinked her large eyes, looking at him a little in alarm, “Uh…yeah?”

Which lead to them being sat on his bed (it was neater than her’s), facing each other, both of them feeling this heavy awkwardness between them and neither knowing quite what to do with it.

Jamie decided to open his mouth first; he was a Hamilton after all. Talking was what he did when he was nervous.

“So, um, Susan?” he began, fiddling with his glasses, pushing them up his nose in an anxious fidget, “Can I ask you something that might make me sound like a complete and total idiot? Like the biggest dork in the world?”

Susie tried to use a little humour to disarm the situation, like she always did, “I kind of already think you’re the biggest dork in the world, dude? So go ahead.”

Jamie could raise a smile there; that was one of the things he loved about her. She was one of the bravest people he knew. There was nothing she couldn’t joke about.

“Yeah well, this might prove you wrong,” he laughs a little, wrapping his long arms around himself.

Susie tilts her head, her lips twitching upwards, “Try me?”

A deep breath, a tense of his shoulders, his eyes pointed determinedly away from her and the words just came out in a rush almost without thinking, “Hey so, would you maybe want to go out with me sometime?”

When Susie’s immediate response was to burst out laughing, Jamie was ready to just cut and run and go live in a cave somewhere. But when she saw his stricken expression she took hold of his arms quickly, reassuring him through gasping, giggling apologies.

“No, no, I’m sorry,” she laughed breathlessly, “It’s just…that’s exactly what I was going to ask you!”

Jamie’s jaw almost hit his chest, “Wait…what?”

Susie smiled at him softly, a smile that made something come alive in the pit of his stomach and start writhing but in a good kind of way.

“Yeah, I um…I like you?” Susie shrugs, “A lot. I’d…I’d love to go out with you sometime.”

Jamie’s eyes went wide, he felt a little like he was dreaming but god dammit, he did not want to wake up. It was a few minutes before he realised that it was probably up to him to say something now, that he had kind of frozen like a busted computer.

He shook himself quickly, “So, the movies? Tomorrow night? Just me and you and we can, ah, go get coffee after?”

Susie’s gentle smile turned into a full-blown grin, “Yeah. Sounds great.”

There was only one thing Jamie wanted to do now, looking at her smile, the one that made him feel like he was home…but he wasn’t exactly sure how to go about it.

“So, I um…I read somewhere that after…after people agree to go out with each other? They tend to…kiss,” Jamie stammered, unable to take his eyes away from her face.

Susie thought to herself that Jamie Hamilton probably was the biggest dork she knew. But he was also the cutest. And the kindest. And the sweetest.

She put her hands on his narrow shoulders and brought him close to her, so their faces were centimetres from each other. She watched, as his pupils got wider, as he shivered slightly at her touch and her scent and her beautiful face.

“Yeah, I read that too, I think,” Susie murmured and pressed her lips to his.

Their first kiss was hesitant, a little shy, and it tasted mainly of toothpaste. And both of them were sad when it ended, when the need for oxygen finally forced their lips to part and they could only gaze at each other with bright eyes and wide smiles.

But they were excited for whatever was coming next.

Breakfast the next day was fun. Eventually, AJ made one innuendo too many and Susie kicked him under the table.

But Jamie still wrapped him up in a fierce hug as soon as they were alone.

“Thanks,” he mumbled quickly before quickly scarpering.

AJ blinked a little in surprise before laughing and shaking his head.

“Anytime, brother.”

**Author's Note:**

> This AU comes from me and my very lovely friend, we're both on tumblr, quantum-oddity and minky-for-short respectively!


End file.
